A day-to-day, true to life drama of aJamaican male,livingandworking in Japan.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Day 461 { Very Genki 3 YO / General Things Foreigners Must Know Before Coming To Japan Part 4 } Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Day 461 { Very Genki 3 YOs / General Things Foreigners Must Know Before Coming To Japan Part 4 }

Very Genki 3 YOHad to teach the 3 year olds at the kindergarten today... and boyyyy it was an experience. They know none of the English words for the fruit cards I brought there. So I started off with my name is blah and the how are you business....Even that was a little difficult.

After 10 minutes of that and 5 mins of head, shoulder, knees and toes, then I tried teaching them about the fruits. But what happen now is each time I held up a fruit card, the kids would rush me with the card in my hand. And the Japanese teachers had to be working hard to pry them off me... I tried it a second and a third time... and its the same result.... about 20 Genki 3 year old kids rushed me. Some pulling my hand, some pulling my leg, others trying to get the card I lift up, others pinching my butt .... and the teachers had to try and get them off me each time. But as soon as they calmed down, they rushed me again.... I don't know why...

Any way

General Things Foreigners Must Know Before Coming To Japan Part 4

25) Eastern and South East Asian countries are easily accessible.

So places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, South Korea, Phillipines, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are pretty easy to get to from Japan and ridiculously cheap.

Fortunately, my prefecture is one of the safest from all natural disasters.

27) I dont know how many of you knew this, but Japanese people have no Wisdom Teeth....

Well I can't find any solid proof of this but my Japanese friend said it to me. I don' particularly want to go and check that out personally so I take her word for it. Her explanation was that, centuries ago, they stopped using them, so I guess evolotion decided to take place or something. Plus many many many Japanese people have very very very bad teeth.

This does not mean that they have no wisdom because ......

28) Many name brand companies are in Japan, possibly second only to the USA.Companies like the following are all Japanese:

If you get used to the food, the people and the culture, it can be one of the best places you have ever been to seriously. It is an amazing place honestly, a clash of modern and ancient... I must admit that many of the people's thinking in terms of foreigners are still very ancient. Not all but many. However, there is a whole lot to see here.

30) Many opportunities to teach English

There are dozens of English teaching companies here. There is one little problem. They tend to favour Americans and Australians. And to get even more detailed, if you are white, then you have more like a 90-95% chance of being successful in getting the job. If you are any other race, then there might be a slight bias. Again its not always the case, but its chiefly the case.

31) Many Shrines, Castles and Temples

Im not so much very interested in this kinda stuff but if you are, there are many many shrines and ancient castles in Japan. some famous ones are inHiroshima (Hiroshima Castle and Miajima Shrine - shrine in the water)

Nagano (Nagano castle)

Hyogo (Himeji Castle)This is probably one of the most amazing ones

Kyoto ( Kinkauji Temple and Nijo castle)Kyoto was an old capital of Japan so it has many many of these stuff

Osaka (Osaka Castle)

32) If you want Information to spread fast, tell a Japanese.

I must admit that many Japanese people are inquisitive, especially when it comes on to foreigners business. And, information about you will spread like wild fire... Thanks for reminding me of this Courtney...eg. of the inquisitive thing, is my friend told me that at her school, the vice principal sits right beside the printer and every single thing she prints, he reads.

And I remember one day last week actually, I told 1 school that I was having a slight stomach ache.... And the next day at the other school, I told the office lady that my stomach was paining me today... She proceeded to ask me " you mean today or yesterday???" Now now now.... seriously.I am not sure if the good news about you spread so much like the bad news or the stuff they deem interesting news. But anything you say will spread TRUST ME!!!

33) This one is for the males... If you find a Japanese girlfriend. BE CAREFUL... Why? Because:

i)they are either going to be totally submissive OR totally have other boyfriends. This too has a whole lot to do with location... the city girls are generally very wild. While the rural ones are generally more submissive... But again I say Generally. My friend in a rural area, after 3 months of breaking off with his Japanese girlfriend... she got married to some guy... YES married and Yes 3 months... then he found out that she had this boyfriend for like 5 years...

ii) Many Japanese girls are generally very JEALOUS and down right different (for want of a better word) compared to westerners.

Again, my friend said he was talking to some random foreigner girl and his then Japanese girlfriend saw him.. Oh bwoy... She called him then took his car keys and sped off in his car?????She then send a couple of emails saying stuff like you cheating bastard etc etc????? this girl hardly knew English but she knows how to say bastard.... And all he was doing, was talking to his friend on the road. So, if they see you with another girl anywhere, it can spell trouble.

iii) They probably won't kill you but they can and occasionally mess you up.

My Jamaican friend who migrated to the US and spent 3 years in Japan, said, when he lived in Tokyo, his girlfriend cut up his American green card????? What did he do to deserve this, I don't know.Oh and some of them will just snap and say its over... without giving you any good reason why. They just wake up one day and say "Sorry its done"... and as far as you know, you didn't do anything wrong.... I think this happened to about 2 or 3 of my friends.

But but, if you find a good Japanese girl, you will be a happy man, according to 3 of my friends who got married to Japanese citizens... 1 Jamaican, and 2 Americans.And Japanese women generally love to cook and clean :) ... So there won't be any trouble there.Sorry, I can't speak for the ladies, but one general thing is, don't expect a whole lot of loving after you have a child or 2... Again, being very general.

Oh and Marriage does not mean automatic citizenship, nor does having half Japanese kids. The kids will be citizens but you can still get kicked out of the country if you mess up. And as I mentioned in a previous post, if a marriage doesn't work out, and a kid is involved. Then, the best thing to do is leave the country with your kids or keep them close to you at all times. Because if the Japanese partner in the failed marriage, decides that they are going to run away with the kid(s)... Then, I am very sorry for you. It is possible that you may never see them again in this life time.

34) Nakedness is not a big deal.

So yes, they are even unisex onsens (hot water baths) here in Japan. However, I heard (Because I have never been to one of these ones) that its mostly women in their 50s and 60s go to these ones.So if you are interested in wrinkles, then go knock yourself out.But most of them are either exclusively male or exclusively female. And again, going back to number 1 from my first post on this, THEY WILL STARE AT YOU!!! Oh and if you have tattoos, then 95 % of the onsens won't let you in... Guess why??? Because they associate tatoos with yakuza (Japanese Mafia). I still don't get the idea that even though yakuza are only Japanesemen as far as I know, foreigners withtattoos can't go in..... I personally think thats just another ploy to keep foreigners away or at a minimal.

35) Kids who get used to you may want to touch forbidden places.

There is this famous thing amongst Japanese kids called the kancho or something like that, where they stick you in the behind with 2 fingers. And they are going to try it on you!!! Some will go as far as trying touching your private. Here is something they should write about in their nihonjinron thing about how Japanese people are different from others. Because I am not sure where else in the world this kind of thing is done.

36) Using the phone on the train is considered impolite

You can talk as loud as you want on the train. But making or getting a call, no matter how important it is, is considered impolite by Japanese standards.37) If you are religious, you may have a hard time.

If you are religious in any way, whatever religion you belong to, if its not shinto or Buddahism, then you may have a difficult time here. Especially if you are in rural areas.

38) If you like Anime, video games and/or Asian girls, then you will really like here.Yeah all these are here in abundance. Japan is home to all these and much much more.39) Be careful of Eating and Drinking Party Invitations.

More than likely, if the people you work with like you or not, they will invite you out to drinking parties. But, sometimes they don't tell you that you have to pay for your food. So because they invite you, you may think thats its free... sometimes it is... But most times its not. and it can be expensive. The worst thing is that you may end up paying for food that you don't like... And so if you dont like the food, then read Number 6 - part 1 of this series. Oh and they will probably try to force you to eat the food that you don't like. And they may pain stakingly ask you REPEATEDLY, why you don't like a certain food....... You are going to have to explain this SEVERAL times to SEVERAL different people, and occasionally to the SAME people.40) Never wear the shoes you wear outside, inside a school building...

I don't know where this came from, but, outside shoes is for outside and inside shoes are for inside. If you don' have an inside shoes, there are several inside only slippers at the entrance of almost every school and some business places. My friend said to me that it has something to do with showing respect to the building. or something of the sort... HUH!! Showing respect to a building????

Anything else I remember, I will put them in future series. If you know anything that I have left out, then feel free to tell me.

Bwoy Richard, yeah man mi is a noob to di firmware business. Never heard the term until I got the PSP. And yeah I read over that blog with the abrupt end recently.. And I cant remember what I was going to say.. Maybe I fell asleep or something... But for the life of me, I can't remember what I was going to say a blouse and skirt. Ohh you said in your post ("quick funny" instead of "quite funny")